Starting a blog can be as frustrating as it is exhilarating. Thankfully, I started blogging when I took a year off of pharmacy school. I had all the time in the world to sift through the tons of articles on Google & Pinterest, finding affordable resources that helped make my blog successful. I did all the work, so you don’t have to!
Here are all my resources, tools, & ebooks I’ve bought & recommend wholeheartedly if you’re looking to save time & have everything you need from the start!
This post contains affiliate links to keep my blog up & running! To read my full disclosure policy, click here.
Where to Start
- Squarespace vs WordPress – How to Choose the Right Platform for You
- Bluehost vs SiteGround (if you choose WordPress like me, you need a web host!)
- The She Approach: Boosting Your Blog Traffic ($25 ebook): Ready to start creating content that inspires others and reaching your ideal audience with click-worthy posts? Ana’s blogging strategies are everything I needed to stay on the right track to blogging success. She covers the basics that you’ll find spread through thousands of blogging pins on Pinterest. She also walks you through her secrets to maximize your blog’s reach! I highly recommend this affordable ebook to new bloggers & bloggers that feel like they’ve tried everything but haven’t seen the results they deserve. I bought this after 2 months of blogging (& frantic researching every day). A $25 investment I should’ve made the day I decided to take my blogging seriously. I constantly refer to this whenever I want clear direction on how to move forward with my blog. Tons of tips & totally worth the money–it even comes with a $30 bonus in the form of 2 months of Tailwind!
Essentials
Themes
Content Distribution
- MailerLite: The one blogging tip I hear from ALL successful bloggers is to start building your email list from the beginning. Once you have a site up, provide a way for your visitors to sign up to your newsletter. WordPress has plugins that make this easy. You can sign up now for free & you won’t need to buy a subscription until you make your first 1,000 email subscribers. If you sign up through this link, you’ll also receive $20 credit to your account–it’s there for when you hit 1,000 subscribers & need a subscription!
- Tailwind: If you’ve started using Pinterest to distribute your blog content, then you’ve probably heard of Tailwind. If you don’t know how Pinterest can help your content distribution, I recommend starting with the ebook below. Tailwind helps you schedule your pins & automate your content distribution, so you can spend more time creating content instead of pinning on Pinterest! When you’re ready to distribute your blog content, click this link to sign up for a 30-day free trial & receive $15 credit to your account–it’s there for when you’re ready to upgrade your subscription!
The She Approach: Making Pinterest Possible ($35 ebook): I bought this Pinterest ebook the moment Ana announced its release. If you’re gaining the majority of your traffic through Pinterest (like most bloggers do) but you know you have so much more potential for a greater reach, you must get this ebook. It’s literally all you need to start & finish creating your Pinterest strategy without spending hundreds of dollars on a course. For $35, you get all the Pinterest tips you need AND all future updates on the course because the Pinterest algorithm is constantly changing. I’m still learning from this course and I bought it a year ago!
Here’s my receipt from May 31st, 2018:
Here’s my Pinterest reach growth for the first 2 months after buying The She Approach: Making Pinterest Possible:
Here’s my Pinterest reach growth for the first 6 months after buying The She Approach: Making Pinterest Possible:
At the end of May, I plateaued at 90K and knew I was missing the right strategies to boost my Pinterest reach. I’m at 960.7K monthly viewers and 51.2K monthly engaged as of December 2018!!! In half a year, I increased my average monthly viewers by 1067% just from implementing Ana’s strategies! So many Pinterest courses cost hundreds of dollars. For $35, it’s really a no-brainer to grab The She Approach: Making Pinterest Possible!
